SUNDAY MIRROR
Wayne Rooney last night sensationally accused Cristiano Ronaldo of deliberately getting him sent off - as England crashed out of the World Cup against Portugal after a nerve-shredding penalty shoot-out.
He revealed that his Manchester United team-mate spoke to him just before the game and said: "I am going to get you sent off."
Rooney, in tears and raging, told fellow players in the dressing room: "I can never play with him again. I am going to f****** sort him out."
TV cameras caught the moment, before kick-off, when cocky Ronaldo whispered in Rooney's ear then butted his neck. Rooney looked bewildered.
Last night Manchester United sources revealed bad blood has festered between Rooney and Ronaldo for most of last season. A United insider said: "Wayne thinks Ronaldo is not a team man, is vain and only interested in himself."
Ronaldo has indicated that he wants a transfer to Real Madrid, but if that doesn't happen and he returns to Man U it will be as England's most hated man.
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
There was also a Portuguese influence on the second fractured toe that spread such recent turmoil throughout the nation, Chelsea's Paulo Ferreira being the unwitting instigator with his challenge during Jose Mourinho's Premiership coronation against Manchester United. Nothing, however, could have prepared the 20-year-old for the ultimate misery of his 33rd appearance for England, a performance that lasted only 61 minutes before a combination of a stamp on Ricardo Carvalho, dogmatic refereeing and goading from his Manchester United team- mate Cristiano Ronaldo resulted in the first red card of his international career.
The argument over whether Rooney's hair-trigger temper cost England in the same way that David Beckham's did in St Etienne in 1998 will inevitably flare again, but that would be harsh on the nation's finest talent, who paid the price for a clumsy move in the heat of a three-man struggle in a World Cup quarter-final rather than for an act of wilful misconduct. His offence paled alongside Petit's two-footed lunge on Joe Cole for malice and potential for injury, and yet the Portugal midfielder saw only yellow.
Rooney's previous red cards, against Birmingham City while an Everton player and Villarreal in last season's ill-fated Champions' League campaign for United, were for a dangerous foul and dissent respectively. The third of his career, for attempting to fend off the attention of both Carvalho and Petit, was the first over which he could have legitimate complaint. Here, his reputation preceded him.
All the arguments between the Football Association and Manchester United, all the work that Rooney had put in on the training ground and inside an oxygen tent to be present in Germany, and for this. All involved in the circus around England's World Cup campaign will be feeling short-changed. They should ask to be compensated with tickets for the first day of pre-season training at Manchester United, when Rooney will have an audience with Ronaldo.
OBSERVER
Within minutes of his substitution [Beckham], Rooney joined him on the bench, sent off for stamping on Ricardo Carvalho, a foul which his Manchester United team-mate, Ronaldo was quick to draw to the referee's attention. Old Trafford might be a rather volatile place in the months ahead.
'I think there is every chance that Wayne Rooney could go back to the Manchester United training ground and stick one on Ronaldo,' Alan Shearer suggested after the match.
SUNDAY TIMES
Cristiano Ronalso was what before the days of political correctness and popular psychology they used to call a ‘problem child'. He was almost expelled from Sporting Lisbon's Academy for throwing a chair at a teacher who mocked his thick Madeira accent. He felt an outcast on mainland Portugal and wanted to go back to the islands he grew up on. After this, he will be able to go to any square inch of his home country and feel idolised. He will find a different reaction awaits him when he next sets foot in England.
Ronaldo's embellishment and perceived theatrics in a Manchester United shirt already made him among the least-like foreign imports in the Premiership. He even divided United fans. Yesterday he took his unpopularity to another level joining a list of big tournament foreign villains for the english which included Diego Simeone and Andreas Moller. OK, so at France ‘98 Simeone was guilty of play-acting. But at least he was actually kicked by David Beckham and Moller's crime was to do no worse than celebrate his winning penalty a little obnoxiously at Euro ‘96. Ronaldo performed that most egregious trick as far as Englishmen are concerned - going against the spirit of fair play. When he ran across to Horatio Elizondo, the Argentine referee, and demanded Wayne Rooney be sent off, it was a Judas moment. Win at all costs even if it means betraying a friend.
Ronaldo's punishment will be to have to face Rooney not just in the United dressing room but on the training pitch in bounce games every day. That is unless he gets his typically self-serving wish to be transferred to Rio Madrid. Rooney certainly thought he was a mate. It was obvious from the way the England number nine shared a joke with his opponent as the pair walked out, shoulder to shoulder, for the line-up. When Ronaldo pulled his trick with the ref, mixed with the disgust on Rooney's face there was an expression of shock.
MARTIN JOL IN THE SUNDAY TIMES
The key incident in the game was Wayne Rooney's sending-off. It wasn't even a booking. I watched the match in Holland with a hundred football-mad Dutchmen. Everybody was cheering for England and everybody felt the same.
When Rooney trampled on Ricardo Carvalho, he didn't do it on purpose. Before that he was being impeded and should have had a foul anyway. The referee blew his whistle and paused and was thinking of what to do when Ronaldo ran over and asked him to show a card. It's how Ronaldo always behaves, trying to influence referees, and it turns my stomach when players do that.
I thought to myself, how could he do that? You could argue that Ronaldo is playing for his country in a World Cup, so it's okay to do anything to win. I don't believe that. What about sporting values? Rooney is his club teammate, and judging by the way they walked out together at the start, joking, his friend? It was a double betrayal, a disaster for football.
I know everybody will be talking about Rooney but I feel sorry for him. He was not guilty. It was a sad way for one of the potential stars of the tournament to go out of his first World Cup.
THE PEOPLE
Cristiano Ronaldo has been branded Public Enemy No.1 for the part he played in getting Wayne Rooney sent off yesterday.
And England legend Alan Shearer fears Rooney could "stick one on" his Manchester United team-mate when the pair are re-united at pre-season training.
Rooney is understood to be furious with Portuguese wing wizard Ronaldo, who tried to wind him up before the World Cup quarter-final in Gelsenkirchen, had a hand in the England striker's red card, and finally winked at the bench as Rooney trudged off in despair.
That led to Shearer claiming on BBC TV: "There is every chance Wayne Rooney will go back to Manchester United's training ground and stick one on Ronaldo."
Rooney appeared to stamp on Chelsea's Ricardo Carvalho in the 62nd minute and Ronaldo sprinted to Argentinian referee Horacio Elizondo, appearing to demand a red card.
But the Manchester United winger denied it, saying: "I complained to the referee about the foul but I didn't ask for a red card."
Rooney pushed Ronaldo away before the referee produced a red card.
Before the game Ronaldo had given Rooney a playful head-butt, although Rooney didn't appear to see the funny side, and after England's World Cup ended in tears it promises to be an eventful reunion when the pair meet again at United's Carrington training ground.
Ronaldo confirmed last night that a move to Real Madrid is on the cards, and this new feud with Rooney could hasten his departure from Old Trafford. Ronaldo has a history of making himself unpopular with his United teammates. He was branded a show pony by United stars furious with his antics during last season's nightmare Champions League KO against Benfica.